Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas W. Lamont | |
---|---|
Banker | |
Years active | 1903-1947 |
Employer | J.P. Morgan & Co. |
Board member of | International Committee of Bankers on Mexico |
Spouse | Florence Haskell (Corliss) Lamont |
Children | Corliss Lamont, Thomas Stilwell Lamont |
Thomas William Lamont Jr. (September 30, 1870 – February 2, 1948) was an American
Early life
Lamont was born in Claverack, New York. His parents were Thomas Lamont, a Methodist minister, and Caroline Deuel Jayne. Since his father was a minister, they moved around Upstate New York a lot and they were not very wealthy.[1] He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1888, where he was editor of the school newspaper, The Exonian, as well as the school yearbook and literary magazine. He then attended Harvard College.[1]
Early career
At Harvard, he became first freshman editor of The Harvard Crimson,[2] which helped him pay off some of his tuition. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1892. He met his wife, Florence Haskell Corliss, at the 1890 Harvard commencement. He started working under the city editor for the New York Tribune two days after he graduated from Harvard in 1892.[3] He married Florence on October 31, 1895 in Englewood, New Jersey.
He also worked for the Albany Evening Journal,
At the Tribune, he received many promotions, including night editor and helping the financial editor, which gave him his first taste of the financial world. He left journalism because of the low pay and went into business.[1]
He began working in business for Cushman Bros., which later became Lamont, Corliss, and Company, and turned it into a successful importing and marketing firm. It was an advertising agency that worked for food corporations. The company was in a bad financial status, but Lamont fixed it, and the company changed its name to Lamont, Corliss, and Company. He was partners with his brother-in-law, Corliss. His banking caught the attention of banker Henry P. Davison, who asked Thomas to join the new Bankers Trust. He started as secretary and treasurer and then moved up to being Vice President and then was promoted to director. He rose to the vice presidency of the First National Bank.[1]
He was a member of the
In 1918, he purchased the
J. P. Morgan
On January 1, 1911, he became a partner of J.P. Morgan & Co., following Davison to the company.[3]
World War I
The company had also started an improvised system so that the Allies could buy supplies from them. In 1917, he joined the Liberty Loan Committee, which helped the treasury sell war bonds to Americans. He also served unofficially as an advisor to a mission to the Allies, led by Edward M. House, as requested by President Woodrow Wilson.[4]
Lamont not only advised the other countries but also went to them. Right before he was going to go to Europe, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia. He and the head of the American Red Cross, William B. Thompson, along with the approval of the British prime minister, Lloyd George, tried to convince America to aid the Bolsheviks so that Russia would stay in the war. However, they were unsuccessful.
Peace negotiations
Both he and
Influence
In the interwar period, he was a spokesman for J.P. Morgan because J.P. Morgan Jr. was retiring. He handled the press and defended the firm during hearings like those of
He was one of the most important agents for the Morgan investments abroad. A member of the
Japan
Lamont later undertook a semiofficial mission to Japan in 1920 to protect American financial issues in Asia. However, he did not aggressively challenge Japanese efforts to build a sphere of influence in Manchuria;[8] indeed, he supported Japan's non-militaristic politics until late into the 1930s.
Ron Chernow won the National Book Award for his book The House of Morgan in which he claimed that Lamont had authored the infamous Japanese response to deceive the world about the Mukden incident, which was used as a pretext for Japan's invasion of Manchuria. That defied the expressed position of US government and the League of Nations that Japan, not China, was the aggressor.
Mexico
Lamont was the chairman of the International Committee of Bankers on Mexico for which he successfully negotiated the
Italy
In 1926, Lamont, self-described as "something like a missionary" for
On September 20, 1940, the fascist police shocked Lamont by arresting Giovanni Fummi, J.P. Morgan & Co.'s leading representative in Italy.[3] Lamont worked to secure Fummi's release. Fummi was released on October 1 and went to Switzerland.
Wall Street crash
On
The market crashed the following Thursday. In an attempt to stop the panic, Lamont organized Wall Street firms to inject confidence back into the stock market through massive purchases of blue chip stocks. The effort failed, and stocks ultimately lost a quarter of their value that week. After the crash unfolded, the Senate Banking Committee found that J.P. Morgan (headed by Lamont), had maintained a "preferential stock list", to allow for liquidation of stocks during the crash at prices premium to actual market value. Politicians, including Calvin Coolidge, and family members of prominent bankers, were on the list. [13]
As chairman
Following the reorganization of J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1943, Lamont was elected
Charitable work
Lamont became a generous benefactor of Harvard and Exeter once he had amassed a fortune, notably by funding the building of Lamont Library. At the end of World War II, Lamont made a very substantial donation toward restoring Canterbury Cathedral in England. His widow, Florence Haskell Corliss donated Torrey Cliff, their weekend residence overlooking the Hudson River in Palisades, New York, to Columbia University. It is now the site of the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory.
Upon Florence's death, a bequest established the
Death
Lamont died in Boca Grande, Florida, in 1948.
Personal life
In 1895, Lamont married Florence Haskell Corliss.
One of his grandsons,
One of his great-grandsons, Ned Lamont, was elected governor of Connecticut in 2018.
In popular culture
Lamont is a major character in Nomi Prins' novel Black Tuesday (2011) and in Kit Holland's Soul Slip Peak (2013).
Works
- ISBN 1176084445
- My boyhood in a parsonage, some brief sketches of American life toward the close of the last century Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1946.
- Across world frontiers, Harcort Brace & Co., New York, 1951. ISBN 1258302160
References
- ^ a b c d e Goldfarb, Stephen. "Lamont, Thomas William". American National Biography Online. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ "T. W. Lamont Is Dead in Florida". The Harvard Crimson. February 3, 1948. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
- ^ ISBN 9781568330181.
- ^ Goldfarb, Stephan. "Lamont, Thomas William". American National Biography Online. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ "Affluent Authoritarianism: New Evidence on Public Opinion and Policy". 3 November 2020.
- ^ "Thomas William Lamont". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 2023-02-09. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Banker as Diplomat". Unc.edu. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
- ^ a b "Morgan - Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism". Coat.ncf.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
- ^ Stark, Irwin (14 December 1985). "Opinion | the Prosperity of '29". The New York Times.
- ^ NY Times, 1985[10]
- ^ "The Crash of 1929 | American Experience | PBS". PBS.
- ^ PBS[12]
- ^ "Lamont-Corliss Family Papers". Smith College Special Collections. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
- ^ "T. S. Lamont 2d And Bobbi Silber Exchange Vows". The New York Times. June 19, 1988. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
- ^ Ingham, John N. Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders. Greenwood Press, Westport CT, 1983. pgs 750-753.
Further reading
- Jones, Kenneth Paul, ed. U.S. Diplomats in Europe, 1919–41 (ABC-CLIO. 1981) online on Lamont's role in Europe, pp 5–24.
- Lamont, Edward M. The Ambassador from Wall Street. The Story of Thomas W. Lamont, J.P. Morgan's Chief Executive. A Biography. Lanham MD: Madison Books, 1994.
- Lundberg, Ferdinand. America's Sixty Families. New York: Vanguard Press, 1937.
Archives and records
- Thomas W. Lamont papers at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.
- Lamont-Corliss Family Papers, [1], Smith College.